Six University scholars elected to British Academy

Six Cambridge academics have been made Fellows of the British Academy in the latest round of elections to the prestigious organisation for scholars in the arts and humanities.

John Tiley, Professor of the Law of Taxation, Director for the Centre of Tax Law, and a Fellow of Queens' College since 1967, has taught tax law at the University for more than 40 years. He has held faculty posts from assistant lecturer to Faculty Chairman and College positions from Director of Studies to Acting President and was appointed to his chair in 1991.

During his time at the University he has endeavoured to bring tax academics, lawyers and practitioners together to share ideas and discuss the practical workings of the tax system and has been instrumental in establishing a seminar programme as a leading forum for such meetings.

His research has focused on comparative approaches to revenue law, an approach which has been aided by numerous visiting posts at foreign institutions, particularly in the US and France. He has also dealt with the problems of tax avoidance, the interpretation of statutes and legal developments in these areas in the UK and abroad.

He said: "It is a great honour to have been appointed to such a prestigious organisation as the British Academy, and a particular delight to see the academic community recognise the importance and intellectual value of the study of tax law."

Paul Julian Smith, Professor of Spanish and Fellow of Trinity Hall, specialises in Hispanic literature and culture, particularly that of Spain and Mexico, from the fifteenth century to the present day. His work focuses on cinema, television and visual culture in particular.

He has given more than 100 invited lectures, held visiting professorships in ten universities, and authored 14 books and 50 articles. He is one of the founding editors of the Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies and edited the Oxford Hispanic Studies book series.

Stephen Oakley is Kennedy Professor of Latin and a Fellow of Emmanuel College. His current research interests include Roman historians of the Republic, the historian Tacitus and the transmission of Latin texts. Much of his work has focused on the early Republic. His books include a four volume commentary on Livy VI-X and The hill-forts of the Samnites.

Julius Lipner is Professor of Hinduism and the Comparative Study of Religion in the Faculty of Divinity and a Fellow of Clare Hall, with research interests in 19th century Bengal, inter-religious dialogue and classical Vedanta, a spiritual tradition found in the Upanishads.

His books include Hindu Ethics: Purity, Abortion and Euthanasia, Brahmabandhab Upadhyay: the Life and Thought of a Revolutionary and, most recently, the only complete English translation of the novel Anandamath. The work, which was first published in 1882, became synonymous with the struggle for Indian independence and is the source of India's national song. Professor Lipner won the American Association for Asian Studies' A.K. Ramanujan Book Prize for Translation for his edition, the first to site the work in its proper historical context.

Martin J. S. Rudwick is an affiliated research scholar at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science. His principal interest is the history of the earth sciences.

He trained in the University's Department of Geology, going on to teach paleontology there for twelve years alongside research on the evolution of fossil invertebrates. He then moved to the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, before going on to teach in this field at the Free University in Amsterdam, Princeton and the University of California San Diego. His books include Living and Fossil Brachiopods, The Meaning of Fossils and Bursting the Limits of Time.

Michael O'Brien, Professor of American Intellectual History and Fellow of Jesus College, is noted for his work on the American South in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He has examined its literature, political philosophy, historical imagination, and sense of self. He is currently writing a biography of John Quincy Adams' wife Louisa Catherine Adams, which will focus on her journey from Saint Petersburg to Paris in the winter of 1815.

He lectures principally on American history between 1789 and 1861, but also teaches courses on 'The Intellectual Origins of American Multiculturalism' and 'American Ideas of Race'.

The British Academy was established by Royal Charter in 1902 as the national academy for humanities and social sciences. It is an independent and self-governing body with a fellowship of more than 800 scholars, elected for achievement in their academic disciplines.